Curt Fowler on Listening to Your Customers
Monday, July 13th, 2015
“It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money… It is the customer who pays the wages.” - Henry Ford
I love that quote. It really puts customer excellence into perspective. You will listen to your boss if for no other reason than the cold hard fact that he or she can fire you. Same goes for your customers. They are your ultimate boss. As leaders we must get better at listening to them and acting on what we hear.
This post will show you how some great companies do it.
There are a lot of great ways you can be listening to your customers. Surveys, using different tools including the Net Promoter Score, are just one of the tools you can use to listen to your customers. Here are some others you can try:
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Social Media
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Focus Groups
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Front line employees can collect feedback
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Complaints – tracking and responding to
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Interview customers – current, past and future
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Contact Us, Speak to the CEO or some other electronic comment capture system from your website
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Apps for your clients
Starbucks does a great job of listening to their customers and, the most important part, responding to them! On their MyStarbucksIdea site, customers can input their ideas for improving the products or experience at Starbucks and then vote on the other ideas submitted by their fellow customers.
The best part of the Starbucks system is that they complete the feedback loop. They respond. Right on the first page of the MyStarbucksIdea Starbucks lists “Ideas in Action.” These are ideas that were submitted by customers through this system. The fact that Starbucks is listening and implements what their customers recommend drives even more ideas and engagement from their customers.
Studies show that 85% of customers want to share ideas and insights for improvements, but half of them don’t feel encouraged to speak up and share. It gets even worse when most of the ideas submitted are never implemented!
Don’t be that company. Make it easy for your customers to reach out to you when they love you and when they hate you. Respond to them and thank them for reaching out. People love to be heard. Make sure your customers feel heard and valued and they will reach out to you more often.
How do you listen to your customers? Share your ideas by posting a comment on our website.
Need help getting started? Contact us now via our website or just give us a call at 229-375-5613 and we’ll help you get going.
